Dr Opiyo Oloya

DEAR Mr. Godfrey Olanya Binaisa, Ndejje University, Kampala, thank you for your e-mail in which you asked, “Oloya, what can you say about Uganda’s situation given the level of inflation these days?"

The issues of escalating food prices and fuel are real.

The majority of Ugandans are feeling the inflation where it hurts the most—in their stomach. It is true there are many factors causing the rise in food and fuel prices. The situation in Libya, the monopoly of oil production by OPEC members, and the emerging economic boom in China have sucked up fuel reserves.

The rising cost of food production is also passed onto the consumer buying a basket of food in the marketplace. Now, it would be foolish to ignore the role of the government of Uganda in providing leadership during the tough economic crunch.

First, Government needs to deal with unregulated price gouging by unscrupulous operators and vendors hoarding commodities and hiking prices.

It is one thing for the Government to say let the market decide what people will pay, but quite another when that market is allowed to set prices based on questionable practices such as artificial price hikes on the basis of monopoly over commodity and commodity distribution.

Secondly, I would go further to say that young people of your generation are quickly losing patience because the skyrocketing unemployment has meant that graduates leave colleges and universities with no hope of decent employment.

The promised pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is but a mirage that yields nothing for them. Wages meanwhile have stagnated so that those with employment continue to tread water because their take-home pay is barely enough for transport fare.

Guaranteed minimum wage will allow the worker to finally get some breathing room needed to improve his or her lot. Such a policy can only work with government intervention.

Thirdly, Government waste and bloated policies must be slashed immediately.

Programmes that do not promote economic growth must be abandoned. Indeed, sometimes it seems as if there is belt-tightening everywhere around the world except in Uganda. The US is aggressively cost-cutting to eliminate a runaway deficit now in the trillions of dollars. Canada whose territory swallows Uganda 43 times has only 303 elected Members of Parliament.

In Uganda, meanwhile, billions of shillings are wasted to support a bloated bureaucracy, a ballooning cabinet, and a parliament that now tops over 330 members. Could you picture what this money could do if farmed out as microfinance loans to young entrepreneurs and farmers eager to produce goods and services?

At a time when young Ugandans like you are being asked to make sacrifices, there must be visible signs that the Government is listening and is willing to make deep sacrifices within its own ranks. Ministers and MPs must voluntarily take pay cuts or have it imposed on them. Government ministries must cut cost and realise savings.

Having said that, I would like to see peaceful assemblies in which Ugandans can freely express their dissatisfaction with current Government policies that exacerbate the economic situation. The anger at Uganda Police and security forces for being firmly against unplanned demonstrations is misplaced.

Although the intended purpose of such demonstrations as I understand it, is to raise awareness about the suffering of ordinary Ugandans, there is real danger of some instigators working to start chaos. This is the case in most public demonstrations the world over including Greece in December 2008, 2009 and 2010, and the G20 summit in Toronto last summer.
There is no doubt without Police vigilance the situation in Uganda will spiral out of hand.

There is nothing to be gained if Kampala, Jinja, Gulu, Masaka, Mbarara or any large urban town burn to the ground. Chaos will not serve anyone, least of all the very people currently feeling the pinch of the worsening economic situation. Instead I would like to see the Government responding to the need of people to freely express their frustrations by providing safe forums for public discussions.

These forums which should be allowed to assemble peacefully should feel free to discuss wasteful Government activities and programmes that have no return on the investment, and also what the Government must do in order to improve the situation.

Indeed, President Yoweri Museveni, cabinet ministers, Government bureaucrats, members of Parliaments should attend these public discussions.
I believe with responsive leadership, Uganda will emerge from this crisis a stronger country. I hope you do too.

Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca